Union members help 'Rock the Vote' by registering voters on Belle Isle

Oct. 5, 2013

Cornelius Crosby Jr., 24, of Southfield registers to vote and renews his driver's license Saturday at the Secretary of State mobile office with help from Pierre Batton during Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan rally and concert to energize and encourage Detroiters to vote. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press

Percy Johnson works as a pipe fitter at General Motors’ Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant, but today, he was manning a voter-registration table at Belle Isle.

Voting is crucial to improving society, said Johnson, 60, of Troy.

“You can be the difference. This is where you can change it,” said Johnson, who is the community action program chairman for UAW Local 22. “Everybody’s got a role to play. This is truly the citizens’ chance.”

Johnson was helping with the UAW Region 1A-sponsored “Rock the Vote” registration drive at Belle Isle, billed as a nonpartisan rally and concert, with music that ranged from marching band performances to hip-hop and gospel. Johnson said he hoped to register 50 to 100 voters before the end of the day Saturday.

In addition to voter registration, the event featured a mobile Secretary of State Office and several speakers, including Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, who warned that “the same people who shut down the government are trying to take away your right to vote.”

Rory Gamble, director of UAW Region 1A, said the union just wants people to participate in the voting process, but it’s up to them to decide who is the best candidate.

“One of the most important things we can do in America is vote,” Gamble said. “We’re not trying to tell people today who to vote for.”

Gamble said his union represents 144,000 workers in a variety of occupations in a region that spans from Toledo to Lansing and takes in the western half of Detroit.

“I think there’s a lot of apathy, a lot of disenfranchisement, especially in Detroit,” Gamble said.

Craig Sharpe, 23, an hourly production worker at Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant, said he has been registered to vote since he was 18. He said it’s important to reach out to young people, and noted that “leadership starts at the bottom.”

Sharpe cited Michigan’s right-to-work law as a reason people should participate in the voting process.

“Right to Work was a terrible setback for the working class,” Sharpe said, referring to the controversial legislation Gov. Rick Snyder signed last year. “(People) didn’t even know about it until it happened.”

Earl Stafford, 43, of Ecorse, who works for an automotive parts warehouse in Brownstown Township, said voting gives people a way to speak their minds about how their government is run.